# Does mushkil mean ambiguous or problematic? *Brown's reply, and why mushkil can mean both ambiguous and problematic* - URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vgoaxxehphk/s/3/ - Date: 2020-09-02 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Jonathan Brown, Daniel Haqiqatjou & the mushkil of mushkil | Mufti Abu Layth (5:11–9:17) - Status: general teaching - Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGoAxXEHpHk&t=311s - Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vgoaxxehphk/ **Topics:** Quranic Arabic; How to read the Quran; Views on contemporary scholars **Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Both sides have a point: mushkil was used technically for texts needing reconciliation and for the indeterminable, while Yasir Qadhi most likely meant it simply as 'problematic'. **Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says mushkil has been used technically both for texts that seem to conflict and need reconciling and for what cannot be determined, so both sides have a point, and that Yasir Qadhi was probably using it as the common Arabic word for problematic. **Evidence, his words at 6:47:** “you see now to be fair the mushkil could mean both ways i mean it wasn't mushkil is sometimes used historically to be technically used to mean something um that may appear ambiguous” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGoAxXEHpHk&t=407s) ## Longer summary Mufti Abu Layth describes round two: Jonathan Brown replied that Haqiqatjou does not know basic Arabic scholarly terms, that mushkil does not mean ambiguous but problematic or requiring explanation or reconciliation, and told him to hit the books; others joined in, some asking whether mushkil can carry the sense of ambiguous and one saying Brown was avoiding the main critique by picking on a side point. Mufti says that, to be fair, mushkil could mean both: it was used technically for something that may appear ambiguous in the sense that scholars hope to reconcile it, and sometimes for something indeterminable, as with the intersex person whose sex could not be determined, and it is an established term in phrases such as mushkil al-hadith and mushkil al-Quran. He adds that Brown also has a point, since Yasir Qadhi was probably not using the word in the technical sense of al-Shafi'i and others but as a common Arabic word for problematic. He then turns to what he sees as Brown's habit of pettiness over small points. ## Sources and names cited - Jonathan Brown - Daniel Haqiqatjou - Yasir Qadhi - al-Shafi'i - mushkil - khuntha (hermaphrodite, intersex person) ## Transcript (machine tier, 5:11–9:17) [4:59] lgbtq agenda and he quotes linda sarsour and dalia mujahid and these kind of people in saying that this is who they're promoting and they now are associated with uh jacquin and it's a proper he has a proper rant about japan and then amidst that this mushkil thing comes up so now that was round one now round two and in that corner we have john johny jonathan jonathan brown he comes back at him [5:36] but he comes at him for the word he says wow daniel jew doesn't know basic arabic scholarly terms he says mushkil means ambiguous does not mean ambiguous it means problematic or requiring explanation or rec or reconciliation hit the books daniel i did the work now it's your turn and there you can see saeed has jumped in as well [6:15] [Laughter] she's like let me take my let me get my bit in there as well so so she so he's jumped back and you know now and then you get some people they jump back at johnny y they say you've got masood vahadi who says well can mushkil hold rather can mushkill hold ambiguous [6:47] there you've got another quote there by uh somebody called zafar saying daniel uh jonathan is avoiding the main critique and he's just picking on these little side bits so i mean what is what is going on here what is going on you see now to be fair the mushkil could mean both ways i mean it wasn't mushkil is sometimes used historically to be technically used to mean something um [7:24] that may appear ambiguous but ambiguous in the sense that they're hoping to reconcile it so they've got a point both have uh sometimes it is used for something that is indeterminable like it cannot be so sometimes they used to call the hermaphrodite who has both genders that the one that was you couldn't determine at all so it has been used in that sense as a technical uh you know like they did you say mushkil hadith quran that has been a terminology but to [8:03] be fair as well uh you know when jonathan brown was coming at it that you know he has a point as well that when yasir adi was using it i doubt it he was using it in accordance with the terminology of you know of uh imam shafi'i or those people he was just using it as a common arabic term to mean problematic you know mushkil you know it's like but then you know this whole obviously the attack back against him because of what he's saying now to be fair to be fair jonathan brown does have a [8:41] an issue with this that he does sometimes get very petty with little things like i remember when i had the bukhari gate thing and instead of speaking about the bukhari gate he tried to just he made a whole post about me saying oh i heard his audio talk and he mentions bunnan he goes first of all it's not bonani's banani so let me correct you on the arabic [9:16] you know this is the uh problematic [Applause] [Music] foreign [Laughter] ## Cite Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment vGoAxXEHpHk/s/3. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vgoaxxehphk/s/3/ Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.